Mark Shields on PBS's Inside Washington Friday made a comment that perfectly defines how liberal media elites view the financial success of anyone other than themselves and their ilk.

Misquoting the late English author G.K. Chesterton, Shields said, “Wherever they are, the rich are the scum of the earth" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

MARK SHIELDS, PBS: I think it was G. K. Chesterton who said, “Wherever they are, the rich are the scum of the earth.”

Actually, Chesterton said, "The rich are the scum of the earth in every country," but why quibble, especially when this evoked so much laughter from the panel:

[Laughter]

SHIELDS: For some reason, Charles doesn’t want to stand up for rich Russians. And I think somebody has to stand up for people who put their money in offshore or nontaxable places. Let's remember, I mean, look at it this way: Cyprus is the Cayman Islands of a different time zone. That’s what it is. We don't want rich people paying taxes whether they’re Russian or whether they’re Republicans.

GORDON PETERSON: But the rich people he’s talking about …

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: You don’t think there’s a difference between the way the Russian economy works and who gets rich? Russia doesn’t have a Steve Jobs. Russia has people who steal from what was once Soviet property and you get your money if you’re a crony of Putin and his other people.

SHIELDS: I wasn’t defending how one gets it. I was just merely addressing the compulsion to keep it and never to surrender any to the public weal.

KRAUTHAMMER: There’s a difference between gains which are ill-gotten or fairly gotten.

PETERSON: Nina.

NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: [Groans] I’m not sure that a lot of the people that Mark is talking about who aren’t Russian got it so fairly either.

Fascinating how neither Shields nor Totenberg can differentiate between how Russian crooks get their money and how the rich in America do.

To them, it's all ill-gotten - unless of course the rich person in question is a Democrat. Then said person is a saint.

Funny how that works.

Consider too that Shields derives much of his income from PBS, a station funded largely by - wait for it! - rich people, their trusts, and their foundations.